Jeff LeBlanc, of Center Moriches, releases his new album "Vision" on May 12, 2015. Photo Credit: Jeff LeBlanc Music

Jeff LeBlanc laughs as he thinks about how his song "Lost Tonight" came together.

"There was just something about that song," says LeBlanc, calling from his home in Center Moriches. "I wrote that with Kevin Garrett. We were working on another song all day and it just wasn't really happening. And he said, 'I had this idea I wanted to show you.' . . . I was like, 'What is this? I'm in!' "

They finished the song quickly and LeBlanc was so happy with it that he made it the opening track of his new album, "Vision" (Jeff LeBlanc Music), out May 12.

"When something like that happens, you know it's unique and special," he says of the song, which is reminiscent of John Mayer's early work. It could be a hit right now, given the right support -- something LeBlanc hopes for.

"I'm trying to keep the faith alive," says LeBlanc, who recently played it for SiriusXM's influential channel "The Coffee House."

LeBlanc -- who has already opened for Luke Bryan, Gavin DeGraw and Colbie Caillat, and will open for Duncan Sheik at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on June 19 -- feels that "Vision" may be the jump to the next level of his career. And he may be right.

There's some '80s R&B mixed into "Stumbled" that makes it stand apart from many of his singer-songwriter counterparts. And the pretty ballad "Love Is Gone" moves from yacht-rock to cool pop in no time flat.

"I was really looking for what makes me different, showing off my pop and R&B influences," says LeBlanc, who recorded the album in Nashville at Sound Emporium with help from a Kickstarter campaign. "I'm really happy with how it came out. . . . I'm a glass half-full kind of guy."

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